Saturday, February 27, 2010

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On my birthday back in December Dick promised me a day trip to Chicago and the Art Institute. I wanted to see the new modern wing, and to revisit some "old friends." We drove to Harvard, Illinois, about a half hour from here, and took the Metra line to downtown Chicago. The trip is a hundred miles, and takes a couple hours. It was a nice day, clear, weather in the 40s, so we walked to Michigan Avenue, and got in for free, since the museum had a promotion of every day in February free admission.

It is OK to take photos in the museum as long as no flash is used, so I took all sort of pictures of sculptures, and have only now gotten around to using them to add in my little watercolor sketchbook. I want to do some more, but I'm not sure I'll have time before our trip to Italy, and after that I bet I'll want to work on other sketches.

Anyway, we explored all day, taking an hour off for lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant, and then returning to see how much more we could see. I adore the Art Institute, but it is so huge that I feel bad about how little time I end up really looking at the paintings and sculpture. By the time we walked back to the train station I was footsore and weary to the bone. Good practice for Italy.

Friday, February 26, 2010

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A tiny puppy was freed by four Gisborne firefighters after its head became wedged in a teapot. The bull-mastiff pup, about 10 weeks old, suffered a small nick to its nose. A fire truck raced to the scene at about 9.45am yesterday, initially believing a person had become trapped. Gisborne senior station officer Mike Milne said the crew had struggled to envisage the situation. "I thought that must be some teapot, but they'd be able to breathe through the spout anyway." The crew was met by a worried looking couple standing at the gate of their home. They were holding the dog, its head stuck inside the old porcelain teapot. With a sledgehammer resting against it, Mr Milne tapped the teapot a few times with an engineer's hammer, breaking it apart. "He was free in a minute and off on his next adventure. He was as happy as anything. When we were leaving I heard the owners saying they'd be calling him Teapot." Mr Milne said he regularly went out to help animals in danger – from cats trapped in walls to dogs down cliffs. He said cats stuck up trees were "a real pain in the neck". "Often we're not even needed because they can come down." The owners of the puppy could not be contacted last night.

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A tiny puppy was freed by four Gisborne firefighters after its head became wedged in a teapot. The bull-mastiff pup, about 10 weeks old, suffered a small nick to its nose. A fire truck raced to the scene at about 9.45am yesterday, initially believing a person had become trapped. Gisborne senior station officer Mike Milne said the crew had struggled to envisage the situation. "I thought that must be some teapot, but they'd be able to breathe through the spout anyway." The crew was met by a worried looking couple standing at the gate of their home. They were holding the dog, its head stuck inside the old porcelain teapot. With a sledgehammer resting against it, Mr Milne tapped the teapot a few times with an engineer's hammer, breaking it apart. "He was free in a minute and off on his next adventure. He was as happy as anything. When we were leaving I heard the owners saying they'd be calling him Teapot." Mr Milne said he regularly went out to help animals in danger – from cats trapped in walls to dogs down cliffs. He said cats stuck up trees were "a real pain in the neck". "Often we're not even needed because they can come down." The owners of the puppy could not be contacted last night.

Now to be clear, this is not the first time that ceramics have been rapid prototyped. But what is so cool is that the machine is cheap and the materiel being printed is just we extruded clay. Although they are not completely clear on what is used.

As they describe it,what they have done is to hook up syringes filled with slurry (sounds like Stuck Up Slip) that is used to extrude layers. How this different from other forms of rapid prototyping? Those systems utilize a dry powder and the printer lays down a binder which the clay powders adhere to. This system is just clay.

This kind of D.I.Y. innovation can really change things that we can do in forwarding our objects.

Now to be clear, this is not the first time that ceramics have been rapid prototyped. But what is so cool is that the machine is cheap and the materiel being printed is just we extruded clay. Although they are not completely clear on what is used.

As they describe it,what they have done is to hook up syringes filled with slurry (sounds like Stuck Up Slip) that is used to extrude layers. How this different from other forms of rapid prototyping? Those systems utilize a dry powder and the printer lays down a binder which the clay powders adhere to. This system is just clay.

This kind of D.I.Y. innovation can really change things that we can do in forwarding our objects.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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Once again we return to this notion of stacking pots. I think that may be my favorite for a few reasons.

1) It is made of CLAY. 2) It makes effective use of stacking with a single shape (+1)3) I love maps and blueprints.

I don't often lavish, unabashed praise. Something about this set makes me very happy. To me it seems near perfect. Functional, interesting as a stack, yet the individual plates are a little odd yet seemingly functional. I also love that they did not fail to detail the inside as well.

Named The Palace Collection from Italian company Seletti. Designed by Alessandro Zambell. You can find it here.

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Once again we return to this notion of stacking pots. I think that may be my favorite for a few reasons.

1) It is made of CLAY. 2) It makes effective use of stacking with a single shape (+1)3) I love maps and blueprints.

I don't often lavish, unabashed praise. Something about this set makes me very happy. To me it seems near perfect. Functional, interesting as a stack, yet the individual plates are a little odd yet seemingly functional. I also love that they did not fail to detail the inside as well.

Named The Palace Collection from Italian company Seletti. Designed by Alessandro Zambell. You can find it here.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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Here is what I've been working on the past few days. I took a photo of some sort of fish when we visited Pike Place Market in Seattle a couple years ago, and finally got around to playing with painting him (her?). I'm not even sure what sort of fish I have here, salmon maybe?

At any rate, I wanted to experiment with some Japanese Masa paper that I had been using for monotypes. I found directions online somewhere, and gave it a go. Masa paper has a smooth and a rough side. I did a quick drawing on the smooth side, then crumpled the paper into a ball and soaked it about 20 seconds in the sink. I have an acrylic sheet that I use for doing prints, so I gently smoothed out the damp paper, smooth drawing side down, onto the sheet. Then I did some rather light washes on the rough side of the paper. The paint spreads and seeps into the wrinkles of the paper. I read that you should place the newly painted paper on some paper toweling and then wait until it dries naturally, usually several hours. Impatient me used a hair dryer to speed up the process.

When the prepared Masa was dry I got a sheet of 140 lb. watercolor paper ready to use as a support. I used a sheet 16x20 inches, just a little larger than my Masa paper. Then I got out some Elmers glue, a container of water, and a cheap brush. I spread glue on the back (rough) side of the Masa, spreading it out evenly with a brush damped with water. It helps to work from the center out, always brushing toward the edges of the paper. I do this on scrap paper, like an old telephone book, because it creates less mess. Then I placed the glue covered sheet on the watercolor paper (drawing side up!), smoothing it out gently first with my damp hands, then with a brayer, to create a good even bond between the Masa and the watercolor paper underneath. Then I waited more until the two glued sheets dried thoroughly. I admit I cheated again, speeding up the process with my hair dryer.

After that, the fun began. I just started painting. The Masa is quite absorbent. It works best to use a light touch, and let each layer dry before adding another. If you rub too much the paper begins to pill like a cheap sweater, which isn't real attractive. My paper did pill a little, but when it was dry I was able to brush the pills away with a dry watercolor brush. I actually went over my original pencil drawing with a little vine charcoal, then began adding watercolor. I even added a little India ink in the eye and on the fins.

I like how he turned out, complete with his splotches and speckles. I look forward to using this paper again, though I'll need to think carefully about what subjects would be enhanced by this process. Landscapes? Portraits. We'll see.

I have never seen this paper for sale locally, but I was able to buy a package from Cheap Joes catalog, and I'm sure there are other places to purchase it online.

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Kristen Kieffer shared this link about these fascinating houses. I love them because the are in line with the bridges made of snow project that I just had my Freshman students do. there is something wonderful about working with limitations. The way that function and basic materials force us into making decisions with limited scope but infinite potential.

The Mugsum people in northern Cameroon are known for thier clay houses. Gigantic in scale and heavily decorated, these houses function as housing, but also provide circulation and cooling.

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Kristen Kieffer shared this link about these fascinating houses. I love them because the are in line with the bridges made of snow project that I just had my Freshman students do. there is something wonderful about working with limitations. The way that function and basic materials force us into making decisions with limited scope but infinite potential.

The Mugsum people in northern Cameroon are known for thier clay houses. Gigantic in scale and heavily decorated, these houses function as housing, but also provide circulation and cooling.

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With all the snow on the ground, I find it easy to spend time up in my little studio. I was combing through some workshop notes from a folder on the shelf, and I came across some notes from a class I took on nightscapes, with Catherine Wilson Smith. I typed them up, and then decided to try out some of the combinations she often uses for mixed grays and earth tones. Usually I would try these on scraps of old watercolor paper, but it occurred to me that the little papers generally end up in the trash, and they would be good to have to keep as reference. So, into the Moleskine watercolor notebook, memorialized forever. I like this plan, and I have used the page several times since I made it. It only uses colors I have at home, nothing too complicated. The colors are real - not subject to the problems with three color reproduction in print.

I had a little stash of magazine clippings for that class, and one was of a man kneeling by a campfire in the snow. I liked the image very much, and tried to reproduce the effect. It isn't too bad, though it seems rather crude. One thing that worked well in this little watercolor sketch in the Moleskine is the background snow, which I mostly did by lifting out the snow on the branches of the trees.

Since my brain was thinking about grays, I noticed an article I clipped ages ago in an art magazine about painting reflections in metals like silver and copper. This was a demonstration from the magazine that I tried in my sketchbook. I wouldn't call the result a rousing success, but it was interesting, and the colors were not ones I might have chosen on my own.

Here's another try, using different colors. One thing I decided to try after reading this article was Winsor Newton's Neutral Tint. The color is a transparent, mild gray that mixes beautifully with other colors, and may be useful for night scenes and things like roads and sidewalks.

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, Madhur Bhandarkar's fashion "for his performance won her first National Award. "56 th National Film Award winners for 2008 were announced here on Saturday.

Best popular film award went to Dibakar Banerjee's' Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! ", A satire on the passion of the people with money.

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Unfortunately my Google translator is acting up, so I can't tell you too much about these cutting boards. Except they are called Cut & Paste. But, from what I can tell, they are an interesting concept of the cutting board. Combining it with a porcelain dish that can be used as a receptacle.

Mrs. Rose and I like to cook and last night as I was chopping away at our Chicken/Almond stir fry I was thinking. One of the smartest things that we have gotten for the kitchen is a few dozen tiny little bowls for components. So after chopping or measuring we can set the ingredients aside, ready to go. That sort of efficiency adds to the dishes, but it makes the cooking itself go a lot easier.

I think this cutting board does the same thing. Creating a depository for the food that you are working with. Keeping it aside and clean ready for the stove.

My only question/critique is if does the bottom have foot pads? Because if the bottom is raw porcelain or worse glaze, it is going to slide with the cutting, not to speak of the impact could fracture the porcelain.

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Unfortunately my Google translator is acting up, so I can't tell you too much about these cutting boards. Except they are called Cut & Paste. But, from what I can tell, they are an interesting concept of the cutting board. Combining it with a porcelain dish that can be used as a receptacle.

Mrs. Rose and I like to cook and last night as I was chopping away at our Chicken/Almond stir fry I was thinking. One of the smartest things that we have gotten for the kitchen is a few dozen tiny little bowls for components. So after chopping or measuring we can set the ingredients aside, ready to go. That sort of efficiency adds to the dishes, but it makes the cooking itself go a lot easier.

I think this cutting board does the same thing. Creating a depository for the food that you are working with. Keeping it aside and clean ready for the stove.

My only question/critique is if does the bottom have foot pads? Because if the bottom is raw porcelain or worse glaze, it is going to slide with the cutting, not to speak of the impact could fracture the porcelain.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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I love to collect the list of celebrities who indulge in clay. It is nice to know that Matthew Sweet, Parker Posey, Gina Davis, Barry Bostwick all dig the dirt.

Jeff Bridges, The Dude, Starman, Kevin Flynn in Tron is getting a lot of press for his movie Crazy Heart and the word is that he may win an Oscar for it.

In one of his recent interviews he admitted to getting dirty.

If I'm not creating something, I get tired of myself, so I do painting, music, ceramics and photography. It gets boring doing one thing - I get restless when I'm acting all the time, so I like to jump from movies to music to the camera.

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I love to collect the list of celebrities who indulge in clay. It is nice to know that Matthew Sweet, Parker Posey, Gina Davis, Barry Bostwick all dig the dirt.

Jeff Bridges, The Dude, Starman, Kevin Flynn in Tron is getting a lot of press for his movie Crazy Heart and the word is that he may win an Oscar for it.

In one of his recent interviews he admitted to getting dirty.

If I'm not creating something, I get tired of myself, so I do painting, music, ceramics and photography. It gets boring doing one thing - I get restless when I'm acting all the time, so I like to jump from movies to music to the camera.